Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will give a “historic address” to MPs on Tuesday evening by video link, it has been confirmed.
He will address MPs at 5pm after House of Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle granted a request to allow him to read a statement.
It is expected he will ask for more arms and will repeat calls for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“Every parliamentarian wants to hear directly from the president, who will be speaking to us live from Ukraine, so this is an important opportunity for the House,” Sir Lindsay said.
Formal parliamentary business will be suspended while MPs watch Zelenskyy on screens installed overnight above either side of the Commons chamber.
More than 500 headsets will be made available to enable MPs to hear a simultaneous translation in English, but there will be no questions at the end of the address.
A former actor, winner of Dancing With The Stars and voice of Paddington Bear, Zelenskyy has become the unlikely symbol of Ukraine’s defiance.
It has been an unlikely transformation for the 44-year-old, who had no political experience before he was elected as president in 2019 – except when he played a fictional president in a satirical TV series.
At the beginning of the crisis, some Ukrainians on social media feared Zelenskyy was out of his depth against Russian president Vladimir Putin, as Moscow massed troops on the border to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
He had been criticised for taking public swipes at the US and other friendly powers when he felt they were not being sufficiently supportive.
But Zelenskyy’s refusal to evacuate with Russian troops closing in on Kyiv and his calm presence in social media videos has won plaudits, even from self-described sceptics.
Amid rumours that he had fled the country, the president posted a video at the end of the first week of conflict proving he had stayed alongside his people.
“We are here. We are in Kyiv. We are defending Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in the clip filmed on the streets of the capital alongside his top advisers.
Chair of the UK’s foreign affairs committee Tom Tugendhat has said Zelenskyy showed a “courage and determination” not seen since the British wartime prime minister.
While another Conservative MP Robert Halfon commented: “The Churchill spirit lives on with this man.”